Then let them eat cake...

Sunday-We made a goal as a District to fast this day for the softening of the hearts for the people in this area towards the church and to have a family baptism in July. As of today (monday) we can actually see a huge difference in the people here which is amazing! Fasting is so powerful! I fast probably two times a month regularly now.

Monday- We went up to Soldier Creek Trail and rode our bikes. It was super hard but really fun! My legs are getting pretty jacked :)

Tuesday- We didn't have a lot of people to see on Tuesday so we went and hit the town. We ran into a couple interesting people but no one really interested. We went to the library to make some flyers to give to people that have the answers to the questions of the soul that we can find in the Book of Mormon. I was going to the bathroom in the library and walked past a room called the "Wyoming Room". I grabbed Elder RIchards so we could check it out. It was a room with a ton of cool historical junk that just really sparked my interest. 

Wednesday- On Wednesday around 1 we decided to just go take a walk through the park. We ran into this older

lady Susan L who we helped move a couple weeks earlier. We talked for about 2 and she said she wants to check out our church now. We're actually going to help her build some book shelves in a hour and teach her a lesson. So we finally found a new investigator!! After we were done talking with her we explored the park some more and found a labyrinth! Haha we went through it this morning right before we came here to email and had some super cool and spiritual experiences and learned A TON! Those things are great to just slow down and reflect on life.

Thursday- We went to see a less active lady named Rita Jones. She's pretty beat up with multiple surgeries and basically bed ridden. We were able to give her a blessing of healing and comfort. She's such a neat lady! We're going to start to visit her maybe once a week or every other week to check up and see how she's doing. Sheridan is such a sweet town! There's always something going on! They had there annual summer 3rd Thursday Festival. It's this huge event where anyone can bring a table and sell people stuff or display stuff or play music just whatever. They close down main street and have it going on from 5-9pm. We went for about 2 hours just talking to people and having a blast!

Friday- A member, Brother B, asked us to join him give a co-worker a blessing. She was just diagnosed with a severe type of cancer and is pretty worried. So we went over and Brother Bujans gave such an amazing blessing. He was crying during most of it. So was Laura. The spirit was so so so strong during the blessing and everyone in the room could feel his presence. Afterwards she gave us all hugs and said she was so thankful for us coming over! The thing that really touched us was her husband. He is retired Navy and just this super tough guy but her broke down and cried during the blessing and afterwards as well he came and gave all 3 of us these super big hugs and said thank you with the most sincerity I've probably ever heard. Laura invited another friend over who is of the Jewish faith to give her a blessing as well. It was pretty interesting to see that prayer she gave in Hebrew and then the different reactions Laura gave after each blessing. During the other blessing she started to collect herself from her tears and afterwards she just said thank you real politely and gave her friend a hug. 

Saturday- The Second Ward Elders had a baptism on Saturday! Our investigator, Sister D came and was crying during the entire service! The spirit is so strong during a baptismal service it's pretty sweet! Afterwards Sister Duffy came up to us and said, "So we're doing this July 19th?" "YES, YES WE ARE!!!" Hahahaha that was the best thing I've ever heard! It was Sister H's husbands birthday as well. He served a mission then left the church so we decided to make him a Book of Mormon cake! If he's not going to read the Book of Mormon he can just "feast on the words of Christ" instead! :) Our other investigator Matt is struggling quite a bit. We're working with him as best we can so hopefully he can figure something out in his head.

Sam- I've been thinking about you a lot lately. Thinking about where I was in life when I was 16 and how it could have been so much better if I stayed closer to Heavenly Father. I read this talk last week and it just makes so much sense. You can actually watch it online which is sweet. I didn't realize it was an hour long but I read like all 9 or 10 pages of it and was super jacked on the spirit. He outlines how Christ's church is established in the Bible and proves with the Bible that our church is the only possible church that is Christ's true church on the earth. Here's the link...

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng&query=blueprints

Also this scripture is pretty sweet! Look at the picture I sent of it. The scripture is describing Utah and if you look

at it vertically it actually says Utah in it!?!? Blew my mind!

2 Nephi 12:2

Anyways, that was my week! The days are going by so fast it's crazy. Time doesn't exist anymore. All I remember is waking up and going to bed then repeat.

I hope you all stay close to our Father in Heaven! I love you guys so much and pray for you everyday!

Elder Autrey :)

I gotta go...but first...LEMME TAKE A SELFIE!

To Dad:

Thank you so much for the prayers! They have been working!! We're potentially going to have 7 new investigators this week!! That's the most this area has ever had for years! I've been praying for you all as well to be safe and set financially which it sounds like Heavenly Father has answered that prayer as well with you being able to work overtime again! That's so great to hear! Thanks for the outline of your blessing. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from it. I think I'm going to do that with my blessing as well now. Hope you have a great day at work today and a great week!

I love you Dad!

Elder Autrey

Broken Ribs

This has been an interesting week. On Monday, Elders Richards, Johnson, Rucker, Dibble, Smith, and I went to this dirt jump course off 11th street. We were jumping 4 people laying down on the ground side by side. Then Elder Dibble wanted me to jump him while he sits Indian style. So the way I am, never to back down a challege (especially bike related), I did it. Soo... I wasn't going quite as fast but I pulled as hard as I could to clear him, which I did, BUT I nose dived, tumbled, found out I'm extremely flexible by folding in half with my feet at my face, and just eating the ground. So I displaced a rib, broke another rib, probably tore something in my shoulder, have road rash all over my back but I'm loving it! Wednesday I called the nurse at the mission office and explained everything and she told me basically don't go to the hospital. It's a waste of money because they can't do anything to help you anyways. Sweet. So I was told to take 3 Ibuprofen's 3 times a day. My  back and shoulders and chest muscles have been extremely tense so it hurt just to move. But I got a priesthood blessing on Wednesday and I can't feel anything anymore! My back isn't even torn up anymore it looks normal with no scars or anything! So I definitely am thankful for the priesthood and for Heavenly Father for healing me!!

On Wednesday we helped out at the food bank again with Dan Lick who runs the bank. It was cool because all the Sheridan missionaries were there! Even Sister Alder and Taylor! I didn't do much unloading the truck though so that was great having the other 5 missionaries there! 

We taught Evelyn Tuesday night I believe. She's a 14 year old girl who's the daughter of a recent convert. Evelyn lives with her Dad out of our area so we focused on her a lot these past 2 weeks while she was here. This lesson was the most amazing lesson I've ever been apart of ever! When Elder Richards was talking I could tell the spirit was working through him. He was saying words I've never heard him ever say before. We could both see that Evelyn's spirit was so happy to be able to remember these teachings. She was eating up everything we said and asking some really great questions! When we handed her a Book of Mormon she smiled so big and said THANK YOU like it was the best present she could ever get on Christmas! She looks at us differently now. The first time we met, she was so stuck up and thought we were the stupidest guys ever but now she actually likes us! She asked us how old we were before we left then came outside and watched us ride away. Heavenly Father loves this girl so much. The first lesson we had with her she got up and left half way through and now she had us come over the last 3 days she was in town and send her home. 

The sisters found 3 investigators on Wednesday! AND Elder Smith's wayward brother is reading his scriptues again and is coming back to church! He was crying so much when he was telling us that over the phone! The spirit was so strong that entire day! I cannot deny the realness of our Heavenly Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The truth has been manifest unto me by small and simple ways but I KNOW what I know.

One of our investigators, Sister Duffy, has been doing great! She's been coming to church for a month now since we started teaching her! We put her on date for baptism on Thursday for July 19th! She's so solid and doing everything right! I'm so glad I'm out here learning the things I am! It's the best decision I've ever made in my life!

I love being a missionary even when it's hard because Heavenly Father always blesses us the inversely proportional joy! It's great!!

Elder Autrey 

Don't think about it...

Not too late to turn off to the side...

Too late

Too trusting

down

Mom is not amused

Supposedly Studying

Elder Richards taking bored selfies instead

Elder Richards thinks he's Captain America

Still bored

Random guy on their roof with a dog...don't ask

Mission BMXing?

Hey!

So this week was kind of slow with teaching. We've been focusing mostly on members and trying to help them feel more confident with doing missionary work. We've been out helping in the community quite a bit this week too, just trying to build our relationship there. This skate church called K-Life came through town on Saturday and

put on this festival downtown right down the street from our place. They built this little skate park in the middle of town and had a huge basketball tournament going on a couple blocks down. So we stopped and watch for a second and then I went to go talk to the one guy bmxing who was just tearing it up! Turns out he's one of the leaders of the church so we became friends pretty fast. We talked to almost all the teenagers there so that was weet! We really built our relationship with the teens of Sheridan now. So they announced they were going to start a bunny hop competition. I already made up my mind I wasn't going to go off any of the ramps because I knew I would probably hurt myself but I thought about doing the bunny hop competition and did. :) So I asked Cameron (the leader guy) if I could borrow his bike and he was like "DUDE HECK YEAH"! So I did it, nailed the jump, everyone cheered and clapped and went crazy because I was in my proselyting clothes and then the entire town of Sheridan fell in love with the missionaries and got baptized!! Okay no one got baptized but seeds were definitely planted! It was so fun!

This week we taught Elder's Quorum about the keys of the priesthood. Last week we taught Gospel Principles about just the priesthood. I started over the Book of Mormon again. I'm in Luke chapter 10 in the New Testament! The Bible is SWEET! I love it. And I started over in Jesus the Christ because I don't remember where I was haha.

Isn't Edward Partridge like super cool! I found out he got his calling election which is pretty cool! Anyways, I think we're going to ride at this dirt jump course today for P day! It's fun, we did it last week and had a blast! 

I love you guys! Read the scriptures, and say your prays! That's where the spirit and touch your hearts and conversion begins!

More Random pics from Sheridan, Wyoming in May

June in Wyoming

 

Elder Rucker in 2nd Ward

Love you all!   

I've seen so many miracles and blessings from Heavenly Father this past month it's a little unbearable! I've learned as long as you have your focus on the Lord with everything you do in your life he's going to bless you and bring so much joy and happiness to you, you won't know what to do with it all!

 

Today we're going down to Buffalo to go play some volleyball with some other Missionaries down there! I'm so excited to bring out the greatest server in all the land! :)

This week we tracted almost everyday and talked to a TON of people! We have 2 solid investigators now that we're putting them both on date this week.

I'm writing you all a letter too! It's pretty sweet! I found out a lot about some of our ancestors! I haven't got the check yet but I got your 2 letters! Your talk was amazing!

Have a great week!

Elder Autrey

 

 

My Companion

The blond sister is in 1st Ward

Elder Galloway my zone leader, Sister Hawkes from my district in the MTC

Elder Schneringer from the MTC but not my district